Fully understanding Twitter and it’s potential impact from a business, marketing, sales, branding and PR perspective has tremendous value. Knowing how to best engage via this channel is crucial to businesses; both big and small. Twitter is a content distribution, consumption and engagement channel that can be used in a multitude of ways for a variety of business purposes. Failing to understand this fully could be a real downside from many perspectives.

The first thing that people need to understand is that Twitter raises the bar for engagement from a consumer expectation level. People expect companies, businesses and brands to be represented on Twitter and interacting. They want to be able to communicate with your company and with people within your organizations in a multitude of capacities.

Think about the Fax machine for just a moment. When only 1 or 2 people had one it was not very valuable. Soon everybody had a fax machine and everyone could communicate via fax because they got connected. Well, Twitter and the millions (6+ at last count) of people are communicating on Twitter are a network of thought leaders, influentials, bloggers, and every day consumers and they are connecting and communicating at a impressive velocity. Twitter is a true game changer in the history of communication channels.

It is unlike anything that we have seen before in the history of communications (both web and mobile). It’s reach extends far beyond the Twitter website in a variety of ways and iterations. Oh, did I mention that it has a messaging amplification factor that is truly mind boggling in the way in which content spreads virally and at tremendous velocity thru it’s network and platform.

Its simplicity is its genius; Twitter can be used in a multitude of capacities such as reputation management, customer service, support, product launches, brand building, brand extension, PR, sales, etc… Knowing how to set specific business goals and follow proven best practices for your specific and clearly defined use case is critical.

I have been using Twitter for over 2 years in a professional capacity and have seen many damaging missteps that are commonly made by the newbie. That was part of my motivation for writing this book. I am sharing proven best practices, use cases, 30 business and personal branding examples, case studies, network building processes, effective tools and processes/methodologies to interact effectively so that your business goals align with how you use Twitter.

Please sign up for our newsletter (no spam) and we will immediately email you a PDF of Chapter 5 from the book. (A Communications Game Changer)

As an FYI if you click the retweet button below and retweet this post, your picture will show up as well as a link to your twitter account.

Twitter search is coming in 10 days.  It would appear that Twitter will start rolling out search as an integrated feature into the homepage of Twitter for about 1% of their users. Twitter is smart to do this as it give them a relevant path to monetization and a way to enhance the service and make it easier for users to find the content (conversations, products, services, brands, topics) that they want to find.

The reason this is important is because Twitter has said that they would use search to introduce businesses to people. This is exactly what I wrote a week ago and mocked up a few different versions of  what it might look like here.

Biz Stone, one of Twitter’s co-founders, told The Times: “Search integration is a way of introducing relevancy to people. This is not just about ‘What are you doing?’ but about what everyone else is doing. Twitter is about finding out what is going on out there right now in real time. This is a powerful new way of repositioning the product.”

He said that tracking keywords for companies, giving companies an official presence on the site and helping them to introduce themselves to customers were all possible revenue generators. Read between the lines here; this means advertising, paid placement, data mining and monitoring (brand and reputation management).

“Hi I would like to introduce my business to you”… this sounds like an advertisement to me. Companies will pay money for an audience and exposure at relevant times to that audience. I just happened to call it “People You Should Know”, which is effectively the same thing.

I think that this makes tremendous sense and is win/win/win. I would also suspect that there will be “Official” business accounts on Twitter that might look just slightly different. As Twitter continues to grow at a rate of well over 700% anual growth, not being on Twitter will become the equivilent of a business not having a blog.

As an FYI if you click the retweet button below and retweet this post, your picture will show up as well as a link to your twitter account.

It is important for businesses, organizations, departments,  and companies to understand that there are many valid business reasons (that can deliver a positive ROI) why they should be participating on Twitter. The ways in which companies choose to use Twitter are quite varied. The use cases and ways in which they use it are typically determined by how they want to interact and the business value that they wish to extract.

Twitter is a Business Tool; how you choose to use that tool will be determined by what you want to use it for: ie. news distribution, customer service, sales, branding, extending product awareness, product launches, promotion, relationship building, etc.

In these tight economic times, Twitter offers your business a way in which to proactively listen, engage and extend your marketing, branding, support and business objectives for no hard costs. So put on your thinking cap and allow your mind to absorb this information and think about how these reasons can be applied to your communication channels & marketing mix.

Just remember that in today’s world… “Conversation is the new currency that fosters business & relationships. Twitter is the Stock Exchange of conversations where interactions get traded.”

17 Reasons Your Business Should Be on Twitter:

People are talking about your product, brand, company or service (you better be listening)

Lack of participation by your business could have negative consequences (ask Exxon or Motrin)

People want to interact with your business (seize this opportunity and the positive options that surround it)

Twitter drives website traffic & awareness

Twitter has the ability to allow your content to spread virally

You can make new connections

Twitter can be used as a channel to access people you that you might not otherwise have access to (networking)

Twitter allows for product feedback

Twitter allows you to touch and interact with customers in a personal way that they value

Brand evangelists on Twitter can be rewarded and encouraged in a variety of ways

Twitter allows you to gather insights and news from the people you follow

You can extend your brand in a new and meaningful way

Your competitors are already there (or will be soon)

You can create a network of influence to help your business in a variety of ways (sales, marketing, support, marcom)

Search Engine Visibility

Twitter allows you to have 1 to 1 conversations in a public way that can extend the reach of your business

Twitter allows you to turn brand detractors into evangelists

This list could have easily been over 50 reasons that your business should be on Twitter. The point to take away here is that Twitter is a new communication channel and it is not going away;  lack of participation will be looked upon negatively by your prospects and clients. The business opportunities abound; it is how you use Twitter that matters. You can learn more here.

Twitter Advertising Has Arrived: While many have speculated about Twitter and it’s potential paths to revenue, I was never concerned with how they might monetize.  They have audience, they have data, they have velocity, they have immediacy, they have a social graph. They will have advertisers. They can add value at several intersecting points that advertisers would be pleased with. The options for Twitter to connect, add value, relevancy and build audiences are built in and provide several profit intersection points.

I would like to point out 3 areas of prime real estate and value opportunities where Twitter is likely to offer advertising for businesses. These areas are of significant marketing value that could add value for Twitter, users and the advertisers. All of these examples bring value to all parties involved; win, win, win across the board. None of these concepts/executions are very intrusive and have proven to be models that have worked for years for advertising giants like Google. You can click on any of the images to see larger illustrations.

1. Friend recommendations area is a premium advertising spot that is ideal for movies, business, brands, music, etc. The screen shot below is an actual screen shot, it has only been altered by highlighting paid sponsors in yellow. These “Suggested Users” could easily be paid placements. At this point I can’t confirm or deny that these are actual paid placements. But our exhaustive research across multiple Twitter accounts would indicate that these suggestions are coming from a fairly limited list of less than 200 accounts to follow. Britney Spears shows up more times than I can even mention. I can see how this would work well for promotion and marketing; thus facilitating buzz around movie launches, product launches, new cars, album releases,  etc.

2. Twitter could also provide recommendations for people to follow on users home page with a “People You Should Know” section. Algorithmically correct and relevant people intermixed with paid sponsors that are relevant based upon tweets that I have published or information from my profile would prove valuable to users. This could work as it would passively allow users to find new people/businesses/brands to follow and interact with. Twitter knows most users locations so this information could also be geo targeted for local businesses. (ie. the local Pizza Port Brewery in Solana Beach, CA).

Distribution = Audience = Awareness = Revenue.

NOTE: Facebook also uses a very similar model for the “Free Gift Of The Day” and it has been reported that this is Facebook largest revenue stream.

2A. Twitter could also wrap a social context element and tell me when someone I follow happened to follow one of the sponsors; thus generating extended reach and “endorsement” from my trusted network. (ie. Steve started following HRBlock)

3. We could also draw from the Google/Yahoo proven models of paid placement and sponsor placement based upon relevancy. Any time you can provide relevant information and facilitate connections and valuable information to users,  it generally will be accepted by the marketplace. The example that I have illustrated is an example for search results for the keyword Cars.  The Sponsor Results on the right of page are all actual twitter accounts that would draw awareness and readers/followers that could very well be interested in the relevant topics/content that these brands tweet about. This could help them grow their audience, distribution and influence. It could also help users find other people that they might have a common interest with.

3A. The relevant tweet is an actual tweet from GM Volt and could easily be placed in the results column and identified as a sponsored placement. (Yahoo does exactly this)

None of these advertising models are confirmed by Twitter. I will say that this could very well be the near future, it is not a stretch in the slightest. They could be paid placement with a Cost Per Click Model or a Cost Per Impression Model that goes to the highest bidder/most relevant/ highest performing advertisers. This is the model that Google created and it is the Goose that lays the golden egg of over 95% of Google’s revenues.

The reality is Twitter will offer some advertising models in the near future.  So having a legitimate and engaging presence with an audience on Twitter will only solidify your future opportunities in this eco-system. You can learn more about how business can use Twitter from our Book “Twitter as a Business Tool” as well as by following us on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/tweetbizbook

We will be releasing the book: Twitter As A Business Tool on Monday January 12, 2009. This Multi-medi kit is comprised of a electronic book, companion workbook, power point deck of 50 slides and 7 training videos to bring you up to speed quickly on Twitter. Covers best practices, use cases, case studies, statistics, trends, marketing and branding and much more. The comprehensive guide offers insights to how to use Twitter to build your business 140 characters at a time.

Download your copy now.